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Linking Theory into Practice
Linking Theory into Practice
The article I chose for this assignment is “Class Participation and Feedback as Enablers
of Student Academic Performance” by Marquez et al. (2023). This study explored the
effectiveness of regular feedback on the performance of students. The researchers used the
Work-In-Class Assessment Tool (WICAT), which provides an assessment of students based on
their class contribution, attendance, performance in everyday small tasks, and active listening.
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This tool allowed teachers to determine students’ performance more clearly and objectively,
which led to better feedback. The purpose of the research was to study the effectiveness of
WICAT and weekly feedback on the academic performance of students (Marquez et al., 2023).
The research participants consisted of 699 students of accounting class over a period of three
years from 2016 to 2019. Students received regular feedback, and data based on student’s final
grades was collected. The results of the study showed that students who received regular
feedback based on WICAT were 2.28 times less likely to fail the exam. However, the overall
performance was not affected by weekly feedback (Marquez et al., 2023).
This article provided me insight into the role of regular feedback. I have observed that
when students get regular feedback, it helps them to identify their weaknesses and strengths.
When there are frequent class discussions and activities and students also get feedback, there are
chances that their performance will improve. The tool WICAT provides a structure that teachers
can use to make more objective and clear observations and can keep a record, which helps them
in providing feedback.
As the research findings suggested that regular feedback decreases the chances of failure
but has no impact on academic performance, I have observed similar. Feedback alone cannot
improve academic performance. Students’ personal motivation, reinforcement, and engagement
with the learning material are also important. From this article and my observations, I have
learned that regular feedback can be an effective tool to improve class performance or reduce the
chances of failure. However, to get better academic performance, there is a need to work on
students’ motivation.
